Digital angiography in the pediatric patient with congenital heart disease: comparison with standard methods.

Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) permits high-resolution cardiac imaging with relatively low doses of contrast medium and reduced radiation exposure. These are potential advantages in children with congenital heart disease. Computer-based DSA (30 frames/sec) and conventional cutfilm angiography (6 frames/sec) or cineangiography (60 frames/sec) were compared in 42 patients, ages 2 months to 18 years (mean 7.8 years) and weighing 3.4 to 78.5 kg (mean 28.2 kg). There were 29 diagnoses that included valvular regurgitant lesions, obstructive lesions, various shunt abnormalities, and a group of miscellaneous anomalies. For injections made at a site distant from the lesion and on the right side of the circulation, the mean dose of contrast medium was 60% to 100% of the conventional dose given during standard angiography. With injections made close to the lesion and on the left side of the circulation, the mean dose of contrast medium was 27.5% to 42% of the conventional dose. Radiation exposure for each technique was markedly reduced in all age groups. A total of 92 digital subtraction angiograms were performed. Five studies were suboptimal because too little contrast medium was injected; in the remaining 87 injections, DSA and conventional studies resulted in identical diagnoses in 81 instances (p less than .001 vs chance). The remaining six injections made during DSA failed to confirm diagnoses made angiographically by standard cutfilm angiography or cineangiography. We conclude that DSA usually provides diagnostic information equivalent to that available from cutfilm angiography and cineangiography, but DSA requires considerably lower doses of contrast medium and less radiation exposure than standard conventional methods.